Mark Thompson, the BBC director-general, has warned that the corporation does
not have enough older women on television.

The lack of more senior female faces is most acute in “iconic roles” and on flagship “topical programmes”, Mr Thompson said.

The admission comes following a series of controversial ageism and sexism disputes involving the replacement of newsreader Moira Stuart, and the former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips.

Mr Thompson said he hoped the landmark age discrimination employment tribunal won by the former Countryfile presenter Miriam O’Reilly would be regarded as a “turning point” and “important wake-up call” for the BBC in its treatment of older women.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Mr Thompson said a “thoughtful critic” of the BBC might make two “searching points”.

“First, that there is an underlying problem, that — whatever the individual success stories — there are manifestly too few older women broadcasting on the BBC, especially in iconic roles and on iconic topical programmes,” he said.

“Second that, as the national broadcaster and one which is paid for by the public, the BBC is in a different class from everyone else, and that the public have every right to expect it to deliver to a higher standard of fairness and open-mindedness in its treatment both of its broadcasters and its audiences.”

He added that there are “too few women in key news and current affairs presenting roles, especially when it comes to the big political interviews”.

Mr Thompson said that while there were examples of women fulfilling top roles, such as the BBC’s Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders, “too few of the most senior on-air specialist journalists at the BBC are women”.

The corporation’s long-standing chief, who is due to step down after the Olympics, said a survey he had commissioned found evidence of viewers’ concern over the lack of older female faces on air.

The study, Serving All Ages, which he commissioned in his role as chairman of the industry body Creative Diversity Network, found that the view was shared by both men and women.

Many respondents had the perception that women were deemed to have “a face for radio” at a certain point in their middle years and were “replaced with what people felt were less qualified but younger, more attractive women”.

Revered figures such as Anna Ford, Selina Scott, Kate Adie and Dame Joan Bakewell have all voiced concerns about the treatment of older women by broadcasters.

Mr Thompson says there is a “duty” to ensure that no presenters suffer a “similar experience” to Miss O’Reilly, who claimed she had been axed from the programme for being too old.

The BBC must “develop and cherish” the “many outstanding women broadcasters” on its books and ensure that they know “age will not be a bar to their future employment”, he said.